LET'S GO OUTSIDE!

KONSTANTIN SOMOV ILLUSTRATES OF LOVE OUTDOORS IN 'LE LIVRE DE LA MARQUISE' A COLLECTION OF EROTIC WRITING PUBLISHED IN VENICE IN 1918, AFTER HE FLED THE REVOLUTION.

IN MODERN TIMES GEORGE MICHAEL CELEBRATED SEX OUTDOORS IN HIS SONG 'OUTSIDE' OF 1998. HE WAS ARRESTED THAT SAME YEAR FOR DOING JUST THAT.

TUSCAN ARTIST UMBERTO BRUNELLESCHI ILLUSTRATED LOVE OUTDOORS IN 'LA LECON D'AMOUR DANS UN PARC' BY THE DECADENT POET RENE' BOISLESVE. AGAIN A COMBINATION OF REFINEMENT, PLEASURE AND ARCH SENSIBILITY. 100 YEARS AGO THERE WAS A REAL TASTE FOR THIS.

YOU WILL NOT BE SURPRISED THAT SOMOV, GEORGE MICHAEL AND UMBERTO BRUNELLESCHI WERE GAY.

WE ARE AT THE END OF SUMMER. I REMEMBER AS A TEENAGER AT THIS TIME OF YEAR CLEARING-OUT THE OLD MAGAZINES AND TRASHY NOVELS FROM UNDER THE BEACH UMBRELLA. THEY NEVER SEEMED TO BELONG TO ANYONE, BUT THEY HAD BEEN WELL READ! THE PLACE WHERE THE CHARACTERS ALWAYS SEEMED TO MEET IN THESE STORIES WAS AWAY FROM THE BEACH IN THE WOODS. I CAN STILL SMELL THE WILD HERBS, SEA-BREEZE AND FLOWERING TREES FROM THESE PAGES!